PC/Mac, Switch • Since the moment we first saw Into the Breach, Subset Games‘ follow-up to the still incredible FTL, we’ve been waiting to play it on our phones or, at least, tablets. For a long while it existed only on PC but a Mac version finally appeared last month and, today, it made the leap to mobile…on Nintendo Switch.
PC/Mac • It was over 3 years ago, when Asmodee Digital was just revving up, when we overheard Fantasy Flight was working on a digital version of their popular Lord of the Rings Living Card Game (LCG). We also quickly learned we weren’t supposed to overhear such things and let it drop with the hope that an official confirmation would be coming soon. It took them a couple years, but confirmation came in 2017 with the announcement of a new in-house developing arm of FFG, Fantasy Flight Interactive. Today, their first foray into the world of board game (card game?) ports has gone live. You can now pick up an Early Access version of Lord of the Rings LCG for PC/Mac.
I shouldn’t have been such a hard case about the Black Death last time, I appear to have attracted the attentions of disease spirits and spent much of last weekend sick in bed. I beheld the Angel of Death and prepared to meet my end… but then it turned out that I was only re-watching Angels in America (the HBO miniseries). It’s really good, by the way – if you haven’t seen it, you really should.
I know, I know, it’s been weeks since we’ve posted our supposedly weekly Scrying. It’s definitely not an issue with the writers. They’ve been submitting their scryings through the slot on my door every Friday just as they should. I just keep running out of time and, by the time I find myself in front of my trusty laptop, the weekend is already nearing an end. I vowed to not make the same mistake this week, so I carved out time specifically to make sure the Scrying arrived on Friday night. Jump past the break to see if I made good on my vow.
iOS, Android, PC/Mac/Linux • It seems like only a few weeks ago that we learned the frantic stock market manipulation game, Stockpile, was coming to digital via Digidiced. Today they dropped a lot more info about that title, which should be here in a month or so, and their next title as well. Shockingly, it’s another Uwe Rosenberg game, Indian Summer.
iOS Universal, Android • Remember Yahtzee, that dice rolling game you were forced to play with your grandparents because if you didn’t the only other option was helping them weed the garden? Anyone? Okay, maybe it was just me, but I grew up with Yahtzee as a gaming staple, spending long days at my grandparents’ house while they babysat my brother and I all summer. While it’s somewhat poopooed these days, I don’t really hate Yahtzee. Sure, strategy is almost nil, but there’s something about chucking dice and filling out that score sheet that hits me in the feels. Today, game designers are turning that simple roll-and-write mechanism on its head with games like the recently released Ganz Schon Clever. A similar roll-and-move game with complex rules just landed on the App Store and it too has a German title: Noch Mal!
Switch • While the original Diablo and its much-lauded sequel are two of my favorite digital experiences, I have more of a love/hate relationship with the third installment. I bought it eagerly when it arrived, even taking a day off work to really sink my teeth into it. Within a week or so I was done. While the graphics were great and the mouse-destroying clicking was at the correct level, the ridiculous story, killing of the only character you give a shit about, and lack of any high-level content made it a bust. A couple years later the (only) expansion was released and I reluctantly crawled back in. Again I stopped after going through the new areas and leveling up a new Crusader. Eventually, however, Blizzard stumbled on the Season model where you could start a new character every few months, race to level up, with new and awesome loot to discover on the way. This hooked me pretty good and had me playing for a month or so at a time, then wait until the next season and start again. I had been doing this for quite a while until last winter when I’d had enough. Blizzard must have sensed my apathy and in a successful bid to get me playing again are going to offer Diablo 3 on Switch starting this fall.
PS4, Xbox, PC • While trudging through the usual Stately spam this morning, I stumbled on a press release proclaiming that Space Hulk: Tactics gets a release date. I was confused. First of all, there’s already a couple digital versions of Space Hulk out there and, secondly, what the hell is with that subtitle, “tactics”? Turns out that there’s a new version of Space Hulk (yes, the same board game that’s been around since the 80s) coming to digital and they added “Tactics” to the end to differentiate it from the versions that already exist. What differentiates Tactics from the other versions on Steam? Cards.
PC/Mac (tomorrow), iOS/Android (later in 2018) • Tomorrow sees the long-awaited release of board game Exodus: Proxima Centauri for PC/Mac on Steam. While I haven’t played the cardboard version, I can’t help but get more and more excited for this one. First of all, it’s a 4X sci-fi game which is awesome. Secondly, it was developed by Offworld Games and the screenshots so far look really promising. If you’re in the same boat, you’ll be happy to know that Offworld released over an hour of video showing a game of Exodus: PC in action. Head past the break and take a gander just to see what we’re in for tomorrow.
PC (Coming to Early Access) • This morning I woke up and went through my morning routine: Brush teeth Shower Pray that death takes me before I wake up the kids As of this post, #3 hasn’t gotten me anything so I’m considering replacing it with “3. Search Twitter” instead. I usually don’t look at social media until after I’ve had either coffee or a Diet Pepsi (better than Coke, fight me!) and feel somewhat like a human. Today, I spotted a Tweet that included a trailer to a game I hadn’t heard about, but now can’t stop thinking about: The Colonists.